On 6/23/07, Jeff Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I would like the ability to encrypt / decrypt a folder on the hard drive
> regardless of what type of files are in it.  For example, I have a folder
> with QuickBooks in it.  I would like to encrypt that folder when I am not
> using it and decrypt it when I want to open QuickBooks.

GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) is the Open Source implementation of the PGP
algorithms and utilities. You can use this to encrypt and decrypt
files. The big advantage of GPG is that it is using a serious
encryption scheme and is not as feasible to crack. The problem with
password-encrypting ZIP files, last I checked, is that it is
relatively easy to brute-force crack a ZIP file. I had a client who
mistyped their password on a ZIP file. I found a couple of utilities
that  attempted to open the file starting with 'aaaaaaaaa' and looping
through 'ZZZZZZZ'  Trying tens of thousands of passwords per minute,
you can recover most files in a few days. I am not a cryptographic
expert, but my understanding is that the GPG/PGP files are orders of
magnitude more difficult (i.e., instead of days, substitute 'years').
If you really just want convenience, you might want to stick with ZIP
files, but if you need to have a greater level of security, for
example for backups with clients' sample data, you might want to take
a look at GPG.

http://www.gnupg.org/

-- 
Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com


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